1 research outputs found
The Structure of the Protonated Serine Octamer
The
amino acid serine has long been known to form a protonated
āmagic-numberā cluster containing eight monomer units
that shows an unusually high abundance in mass spectra and has a remarkable
homochiral preference. Despite many experimental and theoretical studies,
there is no consensus on a Ser<sub>8</sub>H<sup>+</sup> structure
that is in agreement with all experimental observations. Here, we
present the structure of Ser<sub>8</sub>H<sup>+</sup> determined by
a combination of infrared spectroscopy and ab initio molecular dynamics
simulations. The three-dimensional structure that we determine is
ā¼25 kcal mol<sup>ā1</sup> more stable than the previous
most stable published structure and explains both the homochiral preference
and the experimentally observed facile replacement of two serine units